326, 485, 807 A Whit Stillman Trilogy

Discuss releases by Criterion and the films on them. Threads may contain spoilers!
Post Reply
Message
Author
User avatar
Shrew
The Untamed One
Joined: Tue Feb 27, 2007 2:22 am

Re: 326 Metropolitan

#151 Post by Shrew » Sun Apr 29, 2012 9:34 pm

The trouble is there's too many definitions of conservatism (and that that list is simultaneously reductive and all-inclusive in its definition). It's definitely much more lower-case Edmund Burke style conservative than the average film about college students, but that has nothing to with modern American conservatism or right-wing politics, despite the list's attempt to conflate the two. The "customs and conventions of America's upper class" are 19th century hang-ons about love and virtue which, not 1950s ideals of nuclear families or 80s era right to wealth. The film even shows just how odd those customs are within their own class, with pretty much only Audrey, Charlie, and RedHead socialist dude representing them in then.

Then you get things like Eigerman's "roguish defender of standards," in which the inherent contradiction is totally ignored.

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: 326 Metropolitan

#152 Post by domino harvey » Fri Jun 15, 2012 8:16 pm


User avatar
pzadvance
Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2011 7:24 pm
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Re: 485 The Last Days of Disco

#153 Post by pzadvance » Wed Jul 11, 2012 1:38 pm

Napoleon wrote:
ianungstad wrote:The film spends all this time introducing the supporting character Dan in the beginning of the film and sets up this arc where he's dating the roommate...then the character vanishes for 2/3 of the movie but suddenly pops up in the end of the film to share a moment of reflection on the death of disco with the leads.
Characters in Stillman films have a habit of disappearing for huge chunks. I've always found that this reflects life where people do disappear for months or years on end then turn up again and it's like they were never gone. But that's just me. Whether that was Stillman's intention or a by-product of his editting I couldn't say.
Agreed on this point. His films have a casual relationship with time that I find really interesting--jumps of several months or weeks are not uncommon, and characters tend to pass in and out of the narrative with a similar lack of announcement. This is particularly effective in a nostalgic portrait of an era like Disco, in that it allows Stillman to paint a more cohesive picture of a generation over a longer span of time.

Also, the drug crackdown subplot never felt like an attempt at providing a traditional narrative overlay to me--I love the way it plays out in the background for most of the film. It again ties into the "portrait of an era" idea--this is something that was actually happening at the time, and factored into the "death of disco", as it were--but it never corrupts or assumes control of the main narrative, which remains focused on these characters and their relationships.

User avatar
Jean-Luc Garbo
Joined: Thu Dec 09, 2004 1:55 am
Contact:

Re: 326 Metropolitan

#154 Post by Jean-Luc Garbo » Mon Jul 16, 2012 4:04 pm

I checked the BD review on Beav and noticed that the menu on that edition lacks the fonts used on all the DVD menus. Why would Criterion leave out such a lovely element in favor of the plainer font on the menu box for the BD reissue?

User avatar
CSM126
Joined: Thu Nov 04, 2004 8:22 am
Location: The Room
Contact:

Re: 326 Metropolitan

#155 Post by CSM126 » Mon Jul 16, 2012 4:07 pm

Criterion's blu rays all use the exact same standardized font and format for the menu options.

User avatar
mfunk9786
Under Chris' Protection
Joined: Fri May 16, 2008 4:43 pm
Location: Philadelphia, PA

Re: 326 Metropolitan

#156 Post by mfunk9786 » Mon Jul 16, 2012 4:11 pm

I still prefer their DVD menus by a longshot (especially those of Wacky C-era DVDs when, in my opinion, art direction for their DVD releases went to the next level) and miss them terribly. They're the only things I miss when I upgrade titles to Blu-ray.

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: 326 Metropolitan

#157 Post by swo17 » Mon Jul 16, 2012 4:14 pm

I get that the point of having menus like that is to have a non-intrusive way to navigate through all the features on the disc whenever you're watching anything, though I don't see why this should preclude the inclusion of more aesthetically minded main menu screens as well.

User avatar
Jean-Luc Garbo
Joined: Thu Dec 09, 2004 1:55 am
Contact:

Re: 326 Metropolitan

#158 Post by Jean-Luc Garbo » Mon Jul 16, 2012 4:15 pm

CSM126 wrote:Criterion's blu rays all use the exact same standardized font and format for the menu options.
Do you know why they would do that for all of the BDs? Just aesthetic choice? Or is there some technical limitation on the BD that'd make identical DVD and BD menus a nightmare?

User avatar
CSM126
Joined: Thu Nov 04, 2004 8:22 am
Location: The Room
Contact:

Re: 326 Metropolitan

#159 Post by CSM126 » Mon Jul 16, 2012 4:18 pm

I am hardly an expert on the ins and outs of blu ray authoring but I think it comes down to programming. I imagine it's probably easier to have one standard menu layout/program than to design a new one for each film. I could be wrong, but I don't know.

User avatar
zedz
Joined: Sun Nov 07, 2004 7:24 pm

Re: 326 Metropolitan

#160 Post by zedz » Mon Jul 16, 2012 4:35 pm

Also, as swo points out, they need something that works as a template for a pop-up menu while viewing other stuff on the disc - something most of the DVD menus couldn't do.

mfunk, if you want a glorious Criterion menu screen OD, check out Gate of Flesh (I think it's that one and not Story of A Prostitute), which has a whole lot of different animated menu designs that come up randomly.

ptsnob
Joined: Mon Jul 16, 2012 4:24 pm
Location: St. Louis, MO
Contact:

Re: 485 The Last Days of Disco

#161 Post by ptsnob » Mon Jul 16, 2012 4:42 pm

ianungstad wrote:I thought this was easily the worst film Criterion has released in some time.

Stillman makes one poor decision after another in this picture. Technically it's horrible. The scenes in the nightclub were particularly awful. Stillman shoots all the dialog scenes with the music turned down so that all the characters are literally standing on or around the dance floor talking to each other in a normal tone of voice instead of having to shout over the music. (Maybe he thought his audience would be too dumb to notice?) The club is also bright and overly lit. Looks more like a movie set than any nightclub I've ever seen!
You make some good points about the shooting style from Stillman. He's not a particularly skilled technical expert and simply drops his characters in front of the camera. The Last Days of Disco has the most examples of this type of scene. However, this doesn't really bother me when considering this movie. I find that Stillman's trademark wit and ability to draw interesting characters overwhelm considerations of plot or staging. I'm willing to forgive some issues because I'm engaged with the conversations and Stillman's unique approach. I've watched his first three films regularly and expect that Damsels in Distress will be similar when it comes out on DVD.

User avatar
manicsounds
Joined: Tue Nov 02, 2004 10:58 pm
Location: Tokyo, Japan

Re: 485 The Last Days of Disco

#162 Post by manicsounds » Sat Jul 21, 2012 10:38 am


AnamorphicWidescreen
Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2013 12:21 am

Re: 326 Metropolitan

#163 Post by AnamorphicWidescreen » Sat Dec 27, 2014 11:16 pm

I couldn't think of a better time than now to re-watch Whit Stillman's Metropolitan. The Christmas lights/decorations in the big city, cold weather, etc. perfectly capture not only the holidays, but the "dead" time right after Christmas & leading up to New Year's...

And, this remains an extremely entertaining, satisfying film. However, I honestly had never even heard of this until around 2010, when I discovered the Criterion Disk. I'm surprised I like the film so much; even though I was roughly the same age as many of the film's characters when it was released in 1990 (very early 20's), I had/have absolutely nothing in common with these rich trust fund kids whose extreme wealth shields them from many of life's realities - granted, Tom Townsend (the redheaded "main" character) was not wealthy, but he did hang out with the wealthy crowd & obviously aspired to be like them - despite his protestations...

I was especially amused at the scene when Charlie was talking about how there is no "social snobbery" in the U.S. anymore, when nothing could be further from the truth - these kids' elitist parties were the definition of social snobbery...:roll: Which I guess was the whole ironic point...

Though obviously the film's focus was on various philosophical debates these young people had at their various parties/get togethers, I thought the conversation Tom & Charlie had with the older guy in the bar (who amusingly looked a lot like Shemp from "The Three Stooges") re: his philosophy about the "Urban Haute Bourgeoisie" interesting. It's almost as if they were seeing themselves in 20 years.....

As with all of Stillman's films, the dialogue is brilliant:

"I haven't been giving you the silent treatment. I just haven't been talking to you." - Tom (to Serena)

"That was very embarrassing. Thank you for including me." - Charlie (to Tom)

"I can't believe you don't have a driver's license." - Charlie
"Of course I don't. I live in Manhattan." - Tom

The last scene of the film with Audrey, Tom, and Charlie walking along the side of the street in the Hamptons (because they had no car to get home) reminded me a lot of Truffaut's Jules & Jim...

And, the blonde actress that played Sally Fowler is almost the spitting image of a younger Scar Jo, though shorter & less curvy - she even sounds like her...

AnamorphicWidescreen
Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2013 12:21 am

807 Barcelona

#164 Post by AnamorphicWidescreen » Mon Dec 29, 2014 3:00 pm

I've been on a WS kick recently, and am re-watching all of his films in order. Barcelona (1994) is not a bad film, and IMHO is fairly underrated & under-appreciated these days. I thought it was an interesting portrait of American expatriates living in Europe during the cold war (late 1980's?!)...

And, as always with WS films, the dialogue is hilarious.
SpoilerShow
One of my favorite scenes was when Ted, Fred, and a group of women go to a disco (shades of WS's later The Last Days of Disco film), and, as Ted is dancing, Fred convinces one of the women that Ted is a closet masochist - LOL:

"He's not at all the way he seems. He might seem like a typical American, like a big unsophisticated child, but he's far more complex than that. Have you ever heard of the Marquis de Sade? Ted's a great admirer of de Sade. And a follower of Dr. Johnson. He's a complex - and in some ways dangerous - man. He has a serious romantic illusion problem. Women find him fascinating. His nickname is "Punta de Diamante" - point of a diamond. You see that odd expression on his face? Under the apparently very normal clothes he's wearing are these narrow leather straps drawn taut so that when he dances..."

AnamorphicWidescreen
Joined: Tue Apr 16, 2013 12:21 am

Re: 485 The Last Days of Disco

#165 Post by AnamorphicWidescreen » Mon Dec 29, 2014 4:30 pm

Re-watched The Last Days of Disco. Well-done, and possibly my favorite WS film; I'm a big music fan (all types), and enjoyed the disco music, the hymns (especially when KB sung Amazing Grace), etc.

Though I have extremely dim memories of this time (I was in elementary school), IMHO this really captures the whole era extremely well - the music, club scene, attitudes, etc.
SpoilerShow
The club being raided near the end was also ripped from the headlines re: this time period...
It was also nice to see several cast members from Metropolitan & Barcelona in this film, including Audrey Rouget & Ted Boynton (though T. Nichols was also in Metropolitan, it appeared he was reprising his Barcelona role here).

Also interesting was the conversation about the "end of an era" re: the death of Disco, and the characters talking about Disco music not selling, people not going out as much, etc....What enhanced this were the old news clips showing the Disco records being burned, seeing people wear "Disco is dead" T-shirts, etc. I kind of saw this as an analogy that the characters themselves were getting older & were getting ready to accept responsibility instead of going out every night and partying, etc....

User avatar
pzadvance
Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2011 7:24 pm
Location: Los Angeles, CA

Re: 326 Metropolitan

#166 Post by pzadvance » Thu Jun 25, 2015 5:30 pm


Jakamarak
Joined: Sun Mar 23, 2014 8:46 am

Re: 326 Metropolitan

#167 Post by Jakamarak » Sun Aug 09, 2015 9:26 am

Whit Stillman and Cast Talk Metropolitan

http://www.filmlinc.org/daily/the-close ... ropolitan/

User avatar
aox
Joined: Fri Jun 20, 2008 12:02 pm
Location: nYc

Re: 326 Metropolitan

#168 Post by aox » Thu Aug 13, 2015 9:41 am


User avatar
Newsnayr
Joined: Wed Apr 01, 2015 12:54 am

807 Barcelona

#169 Post by Newsnayr » Sat Aug 15, 2015 2:15 am

Barcelona is being prepared for a new release by a company that "you won't be disappointed" by: https://www.reddit.com/r/criterion/comm ... elona_may/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

User avatar
motefuzz
Joined: Sun Mar 01, 2015 5:04 pm

807 Barcelona

#170 Post by motefuzz » Wed Sep 02, 2015 8:07 pm

I attended a screening of Metropolitan with Whit Stillman's Q&A afterwards. Someone asked about Barcelona and if it would ever get a decent home video release. Stillman responded he had just got back from color grading the movie in NYC for a future release. The person then asked if he could reveal who was putting it out and Stillman responded "You'll be very happy."

User avatar
pzadvance
Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2011 7:24 pm
Location: Los Angeles, CA

807 Barcelona

#171 Post by pzadvance » Sat Oct 03, 2015 1:21 pm

This has been heavily hinted at before but Whit Stillman confirmed a Criterion release of "Barcelona" was forthcoming on Twitter:

"WBshop no longer carries Barcelona which must mean the @Criterion is near"

User avatar
swo17
Bloodthirsty Butcher
Joined: Tue Apr 15, 2008 10:25 am
Location: SLC, UT

Re: 326, 485, 807 A Whit Stillman Trilogy

#172 Post by swo17 » Fri Jan 15, 2016 7:03 pm


User avatar
Ribs
Joined: Fri Jun 13, 2014 1:14 pm

Re: 326, 485, 807 A Whit Stillman Trilogy

#173 Post by Ribs » Fri Jan 15, 2016 7:11 pm

I Wonder why the price of the set is $79.99? The Wallace Shawn/Andre Gregory set was $100.

User avatar
domino harvey
Dot Com Dom
Joined: Wed Jan 11, 2006 2:42 pm

Re: 326, 485, 807 A Whit Stillman Trilogy

#174 Post by domino harvey » Fri Jan 15, 2016 7:27 pm

Fantastic extras for Barcelona, looking forward to this one. So happy for Stillman, he's been trying to get this release happening for years

User avatar
PfR73
Joined: Sun Mar 27, 2005 6:07 pm

Re: 326, 485, 807 A Whit Stillman Trilogy

#175 Post by PfR73 » Sat Jan 16, 2016 12:39 am

Ribs wrote:I Wonder why the price of the set is $79.99? The Wallace Shawn/Andre Gregory set was $100.
Maybe because Shawn/Gregory had one new release disc and one new-to-Blu disc? Whereas the Stillman set only has one disc that hasn't previously been released?

Whatever the reason, I'm excited for this release. I've always held off buying Metropolitan & The Last Days Of Disco in the hope this box set would finally come to fruition.

Post Reply